CTS: Answering Your Interior Questions

You make some interesting points that should be elaborated on to the public. The exotic wood for the interior should be explained just like you did here. Not knocking down rainforests is inportant these days & thats what comes to mind when an exotic wood is used. The french stitching, while not important to some, sounds rich and inviting. Also adds a quality touch that needs to be explained why you went to the extra effort & expense. A luxury vehicle with luxury appointments. Its a Cadillac.

Hi Eric,
It is great to see that you all are participating with consumers in such an active manner, such as this blog. It is also good to give feeback- especially the small details like the center hand brake and so on.

Attention to detail and your consumer's interests will ultimately pay off big time.

Wow, ask questions, get answers. Thats a pleasantly refreshing change for corporate-consumer relations. Thanks for the clarification. The electric park brake intrigues me. I'd like to see how the execution comes off.

Hey, I was wondering with all these great interior lights, why don't you light up the ign, cylinder like Chrysler does? Will there be a "V" model?

Eric thanks for responding, what about Sirius sat. will there be a download to bring it on the new screen? I'm waiting to order my new CTS until I hear some news please help.

ray

Eric Clough said: "The Sapele wood is a species of African mahogany and is nursery grown for consistency, sustainability and to avoid rainforest depletion."

Mr Clough,

First, thank you for caring enough to respond. I appreciate that.

Second, concerning sapele wood, it's not that I don't believe you, but how sure are you that the CTS's sapele wood comes from nurseries and plantations??

A few years back the Brits were planning to panel some rooms in one of their historic buildings with sapele wood. Their first response was, "No problem, it's plantation wood." Long story short -- they finally abandoned plans when they found there were no "sapele plantations" and that the African mahogany they planned to use was being extracted from virgin rain forests by timber poachers and smugglers.

Has anyone from GM actually visited one of these sapele plantations?

Eric Clough said: "We try to eliminate as many screws as possible...cars have the luxury of higher production volume which affords more sophisticated tooling and manufacturing techniques so we can hide the fasteners, reduce the errors and improve the quality at the same time."

That's the problem: Those hidden fasteners and clips.

If I looked at an instrument panel on an aircraft, I could immediately figure out where to start taking it apart. There would be obvious bolts which I could loosen with a wrench, hex key, or Torx bit. And when I put it back together, I could tighten those bolts to the proper torque so they wouldn't rattle or squeak.

With hidden clips and spring fasteners, it seems many are good for only "one-time use," and once taken apart, can never be put back together so they don't rattle or squeak.

Best regards,

Gary Dikkers

You need to put that electric parking brake in the Malibu, Impala, etc etc.
Having the Parking Brake on the floor makes the car look like its old and it sucks to have to slam it down with my foot.
Put the Parking Brakes on the console where it belongs. Unless, of course, the car has a bench seat.

I bought a New CTS last Friday and really love it. I did the deal over the internet with the dealer in FWB. Unfortunately when I was driving home I couldn't figure out how to get the ambient lighting to work. Turns out my car doesn't have it. I would think it would be standard in a car that costs $43,700.00. Is there a way to have it turned on or installed after the fact?

Eric,

Great that you are answering questions! I've got over 1000 miles on my new CTS and still love it.

One item I'm curious about is that Bluetooth capability was not available. I don't need it but many people do. I know Cadillac would have liked to have had it on the 2008 CTS, but for some reason couldn't. Can you shed some light on why? Thanks.

Mr. Dikkers,
The guy designed the interior. I would think he would know where the materials comes from.

So far you have posted two vague "stories" about Sapele wood (one "Google search" and now this story about "the British").

We have no sources saying that sapele is endangered.

I like the work they have done on this Cadillac.

Now they need to work even harder on all the other models in Cadillac's lineup (including the SRX--which needs to be on the 2008 CTS platform).

E.L. said:"The guy designed the interior. I would think he would know where the materials comes from."

E.L.

Not necessarily. Do you think the guy who designed the exterior knows where the chrome in the grill came from?

Designers just try to make things look nice and specify materials -- I doubt they are very concerned with where things come from, or how difficult they might be to fabricate.

GM has logisticians, process engineers, and environmentalists who worry about those things.

A good question for Mr Clough to ask their sapele wood supplier would, "Did this wood really come from a nursery?" if GM's environmental team hasn't already.

Sorry to keep beating this horse, but why does the CTS need exotic sapele wood from Africa anyway? Isn't there any type of wood from North America that would do for those trim accents?

Regards,

Gary Dikkers